I am new to Linux (years of UNIX administration though) and I am having problems installing Red Hat Linux on my Laptop. It appears to install correctly, but when I reboot, it hangs on the boot process. it stops as it is attempting to initialize the firewire interface.(1394). I have attempted to re-install with:

linux noauto nofirewire
linux pci=biosirq noapic
  and combinations of these commands.

  I recently found another listserver with a message that indicates Red Hat doesn't handle firewire and I should install Mandrake.

Is it possible to install the Red Hat version and turn off firewire?

Most folks fail the first time
Successful folks keep trying until they succeed

It installs okay, then? And I take it your BIOS does not have a means of disabling the firewire interface at the hardware level (why do notebook makers do that? :P)?

You could try Booting with Kent Robotti's Recovery Is Possible boot floppy, http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-r...looplinux/rip/ (I recommend this, over the famous "Tom's Rescue" because notebook floppy drives often can't handle high-density floppy formats). You could then try hacking the etc/modules.conf file and rem out the line for the ohci1394 module with a '#'. Maybe even burn one of his bootable CDs, if you want more stuff to play with?

HIH
Daniel Walker
(Now all I need, is for someone to tell me how the get the PCMCIA card working on my FreeBSD laptop, but Wiley <cough>I mean "Wrox"</cough> don't do "FreeBSD" ;)

Still hangs when booting on:

Entering non-interactive startup
Checking for new hardware

unless I enter interactive startup and don't start Kudzu. Entering interactive setup (by hitting the 'I' key) isn't as hard as I have been led to believe. Just hold down the 'i' key (no shift) until it asks if you want to start kudzu! I am assuming kudzu has something to do with hardware detection and control.

If I don't start Kudzu, everything appears to come up roses (so far!). I have a nice graphical desktop and can access a terminal window to try stuff like:

comment out: ohci1394 modules in /etc/modules.conf
and
append: nofirewire in /etc/grub.conf

Can't get the hardware browser to work.


Most folks fail the first time
Successful folks keep trying until they succeed

Ah, yes, Kudzu:

"In Georgia, the legend says
That you must close your windows
At night to keep it out of the house."

Those installing RH Linux on laptops, have oft come to regard Kudzu in much the same light as its namesake from Mr Dickey's poem! :) This is unfair, however, since I do not think it was written with laptops in mind.

Kudzu is used to automagically check for hardware changes during runlevel 3. It is useful for detectingremovable media of the kindyou often get on notebooks, but it _is_ buggy. There should be no harm in disabling it for now. chkconfig --level 3 kudzu off. Then have a hunt for "Bill Nottingham" (notting_at_rehhat_dot_com), with things like "firewire" and "iee1394" in the search string, and you may find out more about your problem.

Sorry I can't be more help.
Dan